City says BIDs help improve neighborhoods

Business improvement districts (BIDs) do more than improve the bottom line for storeowners, according to the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS), which has issued an eye-opening report detailing the ways in which BIDs invest in their communities to make the neighborhoods better for residents and shopkeepers alike.​

The city’s BIDs invested a total of $134.7 million in their communities during Fiscal Year 2016, SBS officials said. The information is contained in a report called the SBS FY16 Business Improvement Districts Trends. Renee Giordano, executive director of the Sunset Park BID, said she wasn’t surprised by the findings in the report.

“Our members don’t see themselves as being plopped into a community. We feel that we are part of the community. There is a closeness there,” Giordano told the Brooklyn Eagle...